FLASHBACK – 6 YEARS AGO
They stood on a rooftop, Lagos burning quietly in the distance.
Ghost was dying, though Ikenna didn't know it yet."If the Fog ever goes rogue," Ghost said, "don't fight it with soldiers. Don't fight it with systems."
"What then?"
Ghost had smiled, that strange sad smile.
"Fight it with the last truth we buried."
---
BACK TO PRESENT
They followed the magnetic trail through the lower tunnels of the bunker, lights barely keeping
up with them. Deep below, the air turned cold. Old tech hummed.
They reached a wall: blank, smooth, seamless.
Obi 9 stepped forward.
Placed her palm on it.
It shimmered — and vanished.
Behind it, a small vault room flickered alive.
Inside was a single chair, surrounded by ancient analog screens.
A terminal blinked.
Ikenna approached.
A message flashed on-screen:
"If you're reading this, the Fog is compromised. Only one way out; Break the loop. Find the
Finger." – G.
Briggs stared. "The Finger again."
Timi whispered, "What the hell is the loop?"
Obi 9's eyes widened."I remember now."
---
OBI 9's RECOVERED MEMORY
A lab. Bright white. Ghost standing before a chamber.
A young girl — her — strapped into a pod.
"Her name will be Obi 9," Ghost said. "But she's not the first. She's the ninth."
A masked man stepped forward.
"You sure she won't remember the others?"
"Not unless they trigger the Finger."
Obi 9 gasped as the memory rewound and slammed into her like a wave.
"I wasn't just a prototype. I was the reset key."
Briggs's eyes widened. "You're the failsafe."
"And the trap," she said.
---
WAR ROOM – Crisis Planning
Timi tapped through ancient files Ghost had hidden in analog cores.
"Here! The Finger isn't a person. It's a sequence. A quantum key embedded in an AI construct."
Briggs frowned. "Are we talking about nuclear codes or soul bombs?"
"Both."
Obi 9's voice was distant. "They built me to remember the sequence once the world tried to
erase the Syndicate."
Ikenna leaned in. "Then we need that memoryObi 9 hesitated.
"There's a price," she said. "Once I fully activate the Finger code, I'll lose myself. The last layer
of me — the real me — will be overwritten."
Ikenna's face hardened. "There's no version of this where I let you do that."
But Obi 9 shook her head.
"If I don't… everyone dies. You. Timi. Briggs. Lagos."
She looked him in the eye.
"I was made for this. But you made me more. Let me end what Kreed started."
---
SYNDICATE LEGACY CORE
They prepped the uplink station.
Old tech. Barely functional. Analog signals only.
As the storm raged above, Obi 9 stepped into the chamber.
Briggs primed the broadcast. Timi stabilized the memory lattice.
"Ten minutes till orbital purge," Timi warned.
Obi 9 looked to Ikenna.
He touched her shoulder. "Come back."
She smiled softly. "I'll try."
Then she closed her eyes.
The room glowed.
Streams of light burst upward.---
KREED'S ORBIT STATION
Kreed watched in confusion.
A signal was rising — from the Fog itself.
"Intercept it!" he barked.
The AI panicked. "It's not hackable — it's analog!"
Then the screens went black.
One by one.
And a single message blinked into existence:
"The Ghost is not dead."
Then the satellites… turned.
Every orbital drone reoriented.
Facing Kreed's command ship.
"Override," Kreed shouted. "Override now!"
Too late.
The orbital grid fired.
---
BLAST SHOCKWAVE
The sky lit up like a second sun.
The explosion rocked Lagos.
Inside the bunker, the team shielded their eyes as the fire faded.
Timi checked the readings. "Kreed's ship is gone. The kill network… fried.Ikenna turned to the chamber.
Smoke hissed from the uplink pod.
Obi 9 slumped forward, eyes closed.
He ran to her. Held her.
"Obi…"
She opened her eyes.
Flickered.
Then smiled faintly.
"Kenna…"
He smiled through tears.
"You made it."
---
SYNDICATE REBUILD PLANNING – 4 Days Later
They sat around a new table. No longer a war room.
Briggs wore a sling. Timi looked like he hadn't slept in a year. Obi 9 had cut her hair. Her eyes
no longer glowed — but the fire in her wasn't gone.
Ikenna placed a photo on the table: Ghost. Smiling.
"We rebuild," he said.
Briggs grunted. "How?"
"Carefully."
Timi nodded. "Quietly."
Obi 9 smiled. "Together.And outside, for the first time in months…
The rain stopped.
---
IBESHE COASTLINE SAFEHOUSE, LAGOS – Four Days After the Phase Zero Uprising
The Syndicate wasn't dead.
It was fractured. Bloodied. Burned at the roots.
But it breathed.
And that, for now, was enough.
Ikenna stood on the veranda of the Ibeshe safehouse — an old colonial structure with reinforced
walls and outdated but reliable surveillance. The ocean crashed below. Salt carried on the
breeze, rough and honest.
Behind him, Obi 9 leaned against a stone column, arms folded.
"You still watch the horizon like something's coming," she said.
Ikenna nodded slowly. "Because something always is."
She didn't press. Her voice was softer now, human, not synthetic. After triggering the Finger
code and dismantling Kreed's orbital kill grid, something inside her hard reset. Some fire was
gone — replaced by clarity. But it came at a cost: much of her combat memory was sealed
away. She could remember Ghost's voice. But not the way she used to move through the
shadows.
Briggs joined them, arm still in a sling, cigarette dangling from his lips.
"Two more outposts confirmed gone. Ketu and Port Harcourt cells. Hit after the reset —
precision burns
****
The Silent Twin
The map of Lagos floated in midair, sectioned and blinking with dozens of Syndicate markers —
but only five were green.The rest: gray.
Wiped out, abandoned, or burned.
Ikenna stood at the head of the tactical table, flanked by Briggs, Obi 9, and Timi. Tension
stretched through the room like coiled wire.
"This is all we have left?" Timi asked.
Briggs didn't answer. He didn't need to. The data said it all.
Obi 9 stepped forward, fingers tapping into the side panel. A cluster of new coordinates blinked
on — a triangle centered around Makoko, the floating slums.
"This is where Ghost stashed her," she said.
Her voice was tight.
"She was listed as A-09B. The fail-safe."
Ikenna crossed his arms. "Why there?"
"Because nobody would look for a prototype in the oldest, dirtiest place in the city."
"Clever," Briggs muttered. "So now what?"
"We find her
before they do," Obi said.
"And if she's not friendly?" Timi asked.
Obi looked at him without blinking. "Then we shut her down. Permanently."
—